Lost Gold Chronicles: Why Don't You Get a Job?
by CJ Moliere
Summary: Henry has just turned sixteen, has his license and desperately wants a car but there's a catch...he has to get a job first so he strikes a deal with Rumple that Rumple will help him buy a car IF he gets a job and does it well.


Now that he was sixteen and had his license, Henry Mills Gold wanted his own car and had plenty of people in the family he could ask to get one. The first person he asked was Regina. She didn't feel he was ready for a car of his own yet and refused his request. The next person he asked was Emma. She was in complete agreement with Regina...he wasn't ready to have his own car. Desperate, Henry approached his father whose response stunned him.

"Why can't I have my own car? A lot of other kids have their own cars now!" Henry protested.

"Why don't you get a job?" Bae countered.

"What for?"

"_What for?_ If you get a job you can buy your own car and learn to be responsible. You're not a child anymore Henry. It's time you started learning to live like an adult. In two years you'll be one and believe me, nowadays, you want to start working early How do you expect to become a chef if you sit around on the computer or play on the X-Box all day? You need experience and you can't learn all of that at home."

"I'll just ask Grandpa to get me a car."

"And they'll both tell you the same thing, at least I know _my_ father will." Bae said confidently. "You want a car, you get a job. End of discussion."

Henry didn't feel he was ready to start working but he _did_ want a car so that he could take Grace out on dates. He was almost positive his father was right about what Rumple's response would be to his car request but he decided to try anyway.

"Grandpa, I'd really like a car." he began.

"And how are you planning on paying for it?" Rumple asked.

"Well, I was wondering if you would..ah...get it for me."

"Seek employment and we'll talk about it."

"Aw, come on! Not you too!" Henry whined.

"Yes, me too. Did you honestly think you could get me to undermine your parents on this issue? I think not. And don't even bother trying to wheedle Snow and David into getting you one either. I'll make you a deal: if you can get a job and I receive good reports from your employer for...let's say six months to start, I'll give you a loan towards the purchase of a car that you can pay back in installments every month. If you miss a payment, I take the car until the payment's made. You miss too may payments and you don't get it back. Deal?"

Henry shook his hand. "Deal."

Henry focused his job search on restaurants and the first place he went to was Granny's.

"I'll start you out as a busser. That means you have to set tables, clean them off, and bring the dirty dishes back here to get washed. If we're backed up in the kitchen you'll be expected to run them through the dishwasher and make sure they're clean and dry before you put them away. I expect you to be doing something your entire shift. I don't pay people to stand around. Nor do I pay them to chit chat with their friends when they come in," Granny said sternly. "If you can flap your gums fast you can move your feet even faster. Aaron, can you come in here, please?"

Aaron was one of the Lost Boys his parents and grandparents brought back from Neverland. Now that he was no longer living in Neverland, he and his fellow Lost Boys were aging normally and the boy was now eighteen and had been working for Granny for two years.

"Aaron is going to be your trainer for your first two weeks. After that, you'll be on your own. Our servers wear uniforms but the bussers need only wear red shirts and black slacks. You can purchase those anywhere. As for shoes, your sneakers will do."

"C'mon Henry," Aaron said and led the boy back to the lunchroom. "Granny has a locker for each of us to keep our stuff in while we're working. You'll have to buy your own padlock though."

"Okay," Henry mumbled. It was a lot to take in but he kept reminding himself that he was doing it to get the car he wanted.

Aaron took him back to the break room and handed him a stack of papers, explaining what each one was. He was also informed he would have to have a drug test done. He was stunned. Surely Granny knew he wasn't involved in that but as his mothers pointed out, as the people of Storybrooke were still adjusting to living in this world, some of them tended to pick up its bad habits as well and there were rumors that kids were getting drugs from Boston or getting high off common household items. The last time his uncle Diego was in Storybrooke he suggested expanding the police force to include a vice unit and offered to train the officers along with Victoria and Julianne.

He filled out as many of the papers as he could but the one called a W-4 confused him. His grandfather asked him to stop by his shop on the way home from work that and he decided he would get Rumple's help filling the complex form out. After he finished, he followed Aaron into the kitchen as the other busser explained where all of the equipment he would use was and how to operate them and then it was time to go out on the floor.

Nearly all of Granny's regular customers were surprised to see Henry actually working a blue collar job when most of his family, especially his father's side was considerably wealthy. When Rumple and Belle walked into the diner, Happy actually asked him about it.

"He's learning responsibility and what it means to work for what you want, not have it handed to you," Rumple explained. "It's how his father grew up, how I grew up and how his mother Emma grew up." When he saw Granny, he asked to meet with her in her office, asking her to send him regular reports on his grandson's job performance. She agreed, pleased that Rumple and the rest of the family was making sure the boy wasn't a spoiled brat unlike most of the other moderately weathy kids in town.

His first day on the job he learned quickly that some people were worse than pigs and he was having a hard time trying to keep the tables clear of dirty dishes as they were constantly piling up since Granny had her buffet installed. It cut down on the wait time from food from the kitchen but when he saw how much food people stacked on their plates at one time or how many plates they had at one time he had to wonder where they put it all. And they spilled anything and everything on the tabletops. It was not easy to disguise the disgust on his face.

"Oh you think that's bad...wait til you get put on bathroom duty," Aaron was saying whole they loaded the dishes into the dishwasher. "And...believe me, the ladies room can look just as disgusting as the mens' room."

Since he was still a minor, he was only scheduled a short shift but he was exhausted by the time he got home. Thankfully he'd gotten his homework done before he went to work or he would've been rushing to get it done before school the next morning. He stopped by Rumple's shop the next day after school to have him help him fill out the W-4 form.

"You mean I gotta pay taxes?"

"You may not make enough during the year that you'll need to but eventually you'll join the rest of us who have to make our kickbacks to the government and if you aren't paying in enough by the end of the year, you'll be paying a huge kickback. You get taxed three ways...by the state...this town and by the federal government and all of them come out of your paycheck. Then you'll need to start thinking about getting life insurance, medical, dental, vision, starting a 401k...and those get deducted too."

"Holy crap Grandpa, if I get all that taken out in one check, do I have _any_ money left?"

"You should...and if you pay too much in taxes during the year you can get a refund at the end of the year. That's what most people do. Now then, if you budget your money_wisely_, you should be able to build up a hefty savings for the things you want to do."

He'd been working at the diner a month when he was assigned bathroom duty over the weekend. The other servers and bussers gave him sympathetic looks as he rolled the mop cart into the ladies' room along with the cart that held his cleaning supplies. When he opened the first stall he understood what his coworkers were talking about. It was an absolute mess as it appeared someone either lost control of their bodily functions or just decided to be a smartass. Either way the boy was gagging as he wiped down the walls and scrubbed the commode. Ever since outsiders started coming to their little town, they brought their bad manners and filthy habits with them. The horror only got worse when he went to change the trash, nearly choking on the stench of a dirty diaper...and other things that should have placed somewhere else! When the ladies restroom was clean, he rolled his mop cart into the mens' room and cringed when he saw the mess that awaited him. Someone had clogged one of the commodes with paper towels and the bowl was filled with filth. Also someone had missed the urinal and now there was a puddle of urine on the floor. He managed to get the commode unclogged and the rest of the room cleaned again but he was incensed by what he'd seen. Aaron warned him this was typical of people who came in during the weekend...after they'd been at the bar of course. He said it was usually worse for the overnight shift. When Granny was still in change of the diner it closed at 10 PM. Now that Ruby had taken over, she kept it open all night except for holidays. Profits increased but so did the problems caused by the drunks staggering out of the Rabbit Hole with huge appetites and loud mouths. Henry vowed he would never work an overnight shift in the diner if he could help it.

Except for a few bumps in the road, such as the time he accidently spilled something on a customer while he was trying to clean the table, overloading the cart and breaking a few dishes, swearing on the floor loud enough for customers to hear and being late once, his grandfather was receiving good reports from Granny about his job performance. When his six month trial period was up, his parents and grandparents took him to purchase his first car. It was an emotional day, mostly for Neal, Emma and Regina as they realized that their little boy was becoming a man. Henry had also taken his grandfather's advice to heart and budgeted his money carefully, making certain he set aside enough to make his loan payments to Rumple as well as have some left over to buy things he wanted or needed and to take Grace out.

Once summer rolled around and it was time to go to Florida, Henry was faced with a decision. He didn't want to leave his job at Granny's because he needed the money to make his loan payment but he also enjoyed spending the summer months in the sun. Ruby assured him that he would still have his job when he returned but she also suggested he try to find a job in Florida as well. There were plenty of restuarants in Juno Beach but most of them served alcohol and he wasn't allowed to work in them until he was twenty-one. He finally decided to work at Dunkin' Doughnuts. It was different and its customers were different but still a learning experience for the teenager.

"I'll tell you what," Miranda Santanna, one of his grandfather Rumple's friends proposed when she was at their summer home one night for dinner, "when you turn eighteen why not spend the year here in Florida and I'll start teaching you the restaurant business at Casa Miranda?"

"That's an excellent idea," Regina said.

"Will you?" Henry asked hopefully.

"Of course. I realize it is a long drive from here to Miami..."

"I don't care. I want to learn."

"It's nice to see a boy born into wealth learning to make his own living," Miranda said to Rumple. "It will also make him a more responsible adult."

"That was the idea, dearie but the credit's not mine. His parents were the ones who pushed him to get a job."

"Hey, we all had to do it...'cept for Regina," Bae said.

"Excuse me? And you think taking care of a horse isn't work?"

Emma laughed. "Picturing you shoveling horse crap...is just hilarious."

"Oh you wait. Catch me at the wrong time and you may find said horse crap on your head!"

Although Henry was starting to miss the excitement he had during his childhood years, he was certain his family would find ways to make his adulthood just as interesting.


End file.
